by Gouda » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:44 am
If the Inspector General of the NSA and high ranking members of congress do not have security clearances for this (wait: and why not?!!!), and if Tice is just a specialized, honest guy at the NSA with super-high security clearance, and if Hayden and others are far above him in clearance, while certainly Hayden is not privy to ultimate clearance...where the hell does 'above top secret' end, and what is going on in there?! <br><br>Wrong as it is, this illegal surveillance issue and its even more secret parents seem like another way to a) hamstring the country again with partially-hung out wrongdoing; b) further discredit the Bush admin / prepare for swing back to Neo-Neolibs and c) to remind us, and/or make us believe there are those far above the Constitution dealing in things no one can or will know. Dunno, to me even the suggestion or appearance that there are supra-constitutional activities being carried out in the USA ought to merit a full-scale investigation, arrest and trial by jury. But as Jeff has pointed out over and again, things are a bit <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>off</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> in the land of liberty. <br><br>***<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060214-053955-9494r">www.upi.com/SecurityTerro...3955-9494r</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Whistleblower says NSA violations bigger</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>WASHINGTON Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans' Constitutional rights. <br><br>Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrentless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is forbidden from discussing the program with Congress. <br><br>Tice said he believes it violates the Constitution's protection against unlawful search and seizures but has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees - members or their staff - because they lack high enough clearance. <br>Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office is not cleared to hear the information, he said. <br><br>Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said they believe a few members of the Armed Services Committee are cleared for the information, but they said believe their committee and the intelligence committees have jurisdiction to hear the allegations. <br><br>"Congressman Kucinich wants Congressman Shays to hold a hearing (on the program)," said Doug Gordon, Kucinich's spokesman. "Obviously it would have to take place in some kind of a closed hearing. But Congress has a role to play in oversight. The (Bush) administration does not get to decide what Congress can and can not hear." <br><br>Tice was testifying because he was a National Security Agency intelligence officer who was stripped of his security clearance after he reported his suspicions that a former colleague at the Defense Intelligence Agency was a spy. The matter was dismissed by the DIA, but <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Tice pressed it later and was subsequently ordered to take a psychological examination, during which he was declared paranoid. He is now unemployed. </strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Tice was one of the New York Times sources for its wiretapping story, but he told the committee the information he provided was not secret and could have been provided by an private sector electronic communications professional.<br><br>****<br><br>More, with good ole' Amy:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.alternet.org/rights/30387/">www.alternet.org/rights/30387/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline">Amy Goodman</span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END-->: What was your classification? How high up was your clearance?<br><br><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline">Russell Tice</span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END-->: Well, clearances go up to the top secret level. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>But once you get to the top secret level, there are many caveats and many programs and things that can happen beyond that point.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> I specialized in what's known as black world operations and programs that are very closely held, things that happen in operations and programs in the intelligence community that are closely held, and for the most part these programs are very beneficial to ultimately getting information and protecting the American people. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>But in some cases, I think, classification levels at these -- we call them special access programs, SAPs -- could be used to mask, basically, criminal wrongdoing.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>***<br>"So, you have to ask yourself the question: Why would someone want to go around the FISA court in something like this? I would think the answer could be that <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>this thing is a lot bigger than even the President has been told it is, and that ultimately a vacuum cleaner approach may have been used</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, in which case you don't get names, and that's ultimately why you wouldn't go to the FISA court....And I'm certainly hoping that the President has been misled in what's going on here and that the true crux of this problem is in the leadership of the intelligence community."<br><br>***<br>"People in the intelligence community are afraid. They know that you can't come forward. You have no protections as a whistleblower. These things need to be addressed."<br><br>***<br>"I mean, think about it, you could have potentially somebody getting the wrong phone call from a terrorist and having him spirited away to some back-alley country to get the rubber hose treatment and who knows what else. I think that would kind of qualify as a police state, in my judgment."<br><br>[Who would make those types of phone calls?!]<br><br>***<br><br><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline">Tice</span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END-->: "<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>And I certainly hope that some bad apples, even if these bad apples were at the top of N.S.A., don't ultimately destroy the capabilities of N.S.A.'s ability to do a good job protecting the American people.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->"<br><br>Personally, I would reword that a little. He seems like a nice guy though. <p></p><i></i>
